atw: Re: Dealing with SMEs?
- From: Janice Gelb <Janice.Gelb@xxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:01:44 +1100
j.sids wrote:
My problem is, the content I'm given to write is very new and complex
to me, so I have to ask them a lot of questions just so I understand
things. A few times now, I get the feeling that they get frustrated at
me, or think that I'm dumb because I keep asking them to clarify or
repeat points. I'm not sure if there is a delicate way of handling
situations like this, or good way of dealing with new information. I
tend to keep asking them questions (back and forth) and then I get the
feeling that they're getting hostile, possibly out of frustration.
What is your advice for dealing with new, complex information when
dealing with SMes?
Try to do as much research as you can about the
general subject from other means such as Internet
research - try to limit your questions to the SMEs
to items about your specific implementation. The
more you can target your questions and make it
clear that you're asking them things that only they
can answer, the better your reception will be, imho.
Make sure that you have organized your questions ahead
of time. If you can, tape the sessions so that you can
review them fully and not just from rushed notes. Try to
do as much as you can by email so they can respond when
they have some time but be sure to set a specific deadline
for responses.
As others have noted, sometimes you're never going
to fix this because the engineers don't see it as
an important part of their job. If you think that's
the core problem, you might want to encourage your
department to educate the technical folks about the
importance of accurate documentation.
-- Janice
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Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice.gelb@xxxxxxx | this message is the return address
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